Secular art might develop as it
liked, though the crystallizing influence of the ecclesiastical canon is
always evident here also. But henceforward it was an impiety, which only
an Akhunaten could commit, to depict a king or a god on the walls of a
temple otherwise (except so far as, the portrait was concerned) than as
he had been depicted in the time of the Vth Dynasty.
Other buildings have been excavated by the Germans at Abusir, notably
the usual town of mastaba-tombs belonging to the chief dignitaries of
the reign, which is always found at the foot of a royal pyramid of this
period. Another building of the highest interest, belonging to the same
age, was also excavated, and its true character was determined. This is
a building at a place called er-Righa or Abu Ghuraib, "Father of Crows,"
between Abusir and Giza. It was formerly supposed to be a pyramid, but
the German excavations have shown that it is really a temple of the
Sun-god Ra of Heliopolis, specially venerated by the kings of the Vth
Dynasty, who were of Heliopolitan origin. The great pyramid-builders of
the IVth Dynasty seem to have been the last true Memphites. At the end
of the reign of Shepseskaf, the last monarch of the dynasty, the sceptre
passed to a Heliopolitan family. The following VIth Dynasty may again
have been Memphite, but this is uncertain.
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